HIGH SCHOOL Director John Stalberg Will Adapt SPANKING SHAKESPEARE

Way back in September 2008, we reported that Paramount Pictures was planning to adapt Jake Wizner’s novel Spanking Shakespeare is about unpopular high school senior Shakespeare Shapiro, “who turns his high school upside-down when he unwittingly becomes an internet sensation and the face of an anti-college revolution.” Yeah! Boo college! Wait—what?

Variety reports that High School director John Stalberg Jr. will direct the film as well as rewrite Dan Lagana’s script. Now we shall wait and see if it takes another two-and-a-half years for a new development on this movie. Hit the jump for a synopsis of Wizner’s novel.

Here’s the synopsis for Jake Wizner’s Spanking Shakespeare, which at least sounds more universal than a senior becoming an Internet sensation (and even more unbelievable that he becomes an Internet sensation in a positive way) and turning his high school upside down:

SHAKESPEARE SHAPIRO HAS ALWAYS hated his name. His parents bestowed it on him as some kind of sick joke when he was born, and his life has gone downhill from there, one embarrassing incident after another. Entering his senior year of high school, Shakespeare has never had a girlfriend, his younger brother is cooler than he is, and his best friend’s favorite topic of conversation is his bowel movements.

But Shakespeare will have the last laugh. He is chronicling every mortifying detail in his memoir, the writing project each senior at Shakespeare’s high school must complete. And he is doing it brilliantly. And, just maybe, a prize-winning memoir will bring him respect, admiration, and a girlfriend . . . or at least a prom date. [Amazon]